Catching up with football coach Tony Levine

I sat down with Houston head football coach Tony Levine on Tuesday to catch up on things now that we’re more than a week removed from the conclusion of spring football.

The focus for Levine and the entire coaching staff right now is singular: recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. I wrote about some of Levine’s philosophy and some of the efforts the staff is making in my latest UH notebook (see the link or Wednesday’s Chronicle).

UH coach Tony Levine, right (Sam Khan/Chronicle)

For those of you who were hoping to see a post-spring depth chart, Levine said Tuesday that they haven’t quite finalized that and might not for a few weeks. All the assistants hit the road the Monday after the spring game and have been on the road since then visiting high schools and evaluating prospects since this is an evaluation period.

Aside from that, we talked a little bit about expectations and I also had Levine answer questions from some of my Twitter followers, which you’ll see below. I may try to do that again in the future (solicit questions from the Twitterverse) so be sure to follow me on Twitter (@skhanjr) if you want to get in on the action, should I elect to do it again at a later date.

In the meantime, here are some takes from Levine on a few topics:

Q: It seems like a silly question but I’ll ask it: What are your expectations for the season?
Tony Levine: I have high expectations and I’ve always had and will have high expectations. We will approach every game expecting to win. I think that’s kind of become the culture here right now. If you replace “expectations” with “goals,” our goal will continue to be to win the championship. Win our side of Conference USA and not only play in but win the Conference USA championship game. Those are our goals. Expectation-wise, the word expectation can kind of be interpreted as ‘What do you think the outcome of the season is going to be?’ That I don’t know other than I do know that at each coin toss we’ll expect to win that game.

Q: In 2008, UH had a new coaching staff, a sophomore quarterback who was the full-time starter for the first time (Case Keenum) and a lot of new pieces. Is there anything you can take from the ’08 experience that will help you this season, which will include similar circumstances?TL: I think so. If you look back at ’08, and again we were a new staff — I’m not a new coach and nor are three of our defensive assistants, but overall it’s a new staff — and I think overall it’s a new team. In ’08, we went through spring trying to decide who the quarterback would be and we had no idea who would be catching passes. We had a walk-on, redshirt freshman named Patrick Edwards, we had a redshirt freshman 150-pound receiver named Tyron Carrier, both of whom had never played a down of football in college and we had what we felt like was our best skill player was a 6-2, 230-pound tight end named Mark Hafner and we had a walk-on receiver that ran 4.7 (in the 40-yard dash) named Chaz Rodriguez. Somehow with a sophomore quarterback, and bunch of unproven receivers and a veteran tight end we were able to win eight games and a bowl game after starting off 1-3. I think there are some parallels when you say that our quarterback’s going to have a little bit of experience coming into the season and a bunch of unknown receivers.

And now for the questions from some of my Twitter followers (and thank you folks for participating):

This question comes from BBD (@crazyfool999):How special does it feel to be coaching the final year of Robertson Stadium’s existence?
TL: It is special. I think there’s going to be a number of firsts that I’m going to encounter as the head coach here and in the next few years and there’s going to be a number of lasts that I’m going to encounter as the head coach here in the next few years. I think both sides of it are special. There’s been so much tradition at Robertson and so many great moments in the history of the stadium that to have a chance to lead the team out there in the final season is going to be special. It’s going to be hard. You’ll see not only young men in our program but former players that had a lot of great moments on that field celebrated and kind of take in their surroundings game-by-game over the course of the 2012 season and it’ll be sad to see it go but in the same respect we’re excited to see what’s to come with the new stadium.

From Chris Coleman (@CSColeman25): Is there a reason we are offering scholarships to students out of state when you said recruiting would be focused in-state?TL: Yes. Recruiting is focused in state. We have had a tremendous response from some of the top recruits nationally for a number of different reasons. In no particular order: Houston is a top 25 program, we played almost every week, it seemed like, on national TV. We were the most exciting team to watch, so the feedback that we’re getting from recruits all the way out west and out east is that they’re extremely familiar with our program, they’re extremely excited about our style of football — on offense, defense and special teams — and they’re also are a number of them that have connections to either the state of Texas or the city of Houston or the University of Houston. So while we are focusing our efforts on the state of Texas and Greater Houston in recruiting, because of our national recognition right now and ties to this area, you’re seeing us pursue a limited number of high school recruits.

And finally, from a name you Cougars fans might recognize, Zeke Riser (@zeke_riser):Will Zeke Riser be used as a tight end, short-yardage back, or possibly a wildcat quarterback this upcoming season?TL: Not at the University of Houston (laughs).

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The Cougars softball team returned home on Tuesday night and picked up a 12-4 win over Texas Southern in five innings.

Senior outfielder Melissa Gregson went 2-for-3 with a homer and five RBIs while sophomore catcher Haley Outon went 2-for-2 with a homer, two RBIs and two runs scored. Freshman Summer Groholski (7-4) pitched all five innings in the win, striking out two.

UH women’s hoops head coach Todd Buchanan announced the signing of junior college All-American Te’onna Campbell of New Mexico Junior College on Tuesday. Campbell, a 5-10 forward, averaged 12.7 points. 7.5 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game in two seasons at New Mexico JC. She’s the second addition of the spring (Destini Texada, the transfer from HBU, is the other) and seventh member of the Cougars’ signing class.

• • •

A brief men’s hoops update:

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, don’t expect to see the Cougars sign anyone else this spring, and that includes junior college post Calvin Godfrey, who visited UH more than a week ago (and visited Wichita State over the weekend). Since the Cougars are at the scholarship limit and expect everyone that’s on the roster back in the fold next season and for their incoming class of recruits to qualify, they won’t be “over-signing” if you will.

Word is that Kirk Van Slyke, who was granted his release on April 7, took a visit to Arkansas State recently and plans to take a visit to Oakland. Notably, it was Arkansas State that another former UH player transferred to (Kendrick Washington, who left the program after the 2010-11 season). Also notably, Oakland is the team which Van Slyke posted a career-high 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds; undoubtedly his best game of the 2011-12 season for Houston.